Parsons proposes I-70 improvements

Parsons Corp. has offered to smooth traffic problems on Interstate 70, from C-470 to Silverthorne and ultimately to Eagle, the Colorado Department of Transportation said Wednesday.

Parsons is a private global engineering, design and construction company based in Pasadena, Calif. It recently sent an “unsolicited proposal” for a “public-private partnership” to the High Performance Transportation Enterprise (HPTE), a government-owned business inside CDOT, the agency said.

The Colorado Legislature created the HPTE in 2009 to figure out how the state might raise money to pay for transportation projects. The agency could pursue such things as public-private partnerships, operating concession agreements, toll-based project financing, and availability payment and design-build contracting.

Details about Parsons’ proposal — such as what work might be done and how much it might cost — were scarce Wednesday.

“It’s our policy not to discuss business development opportunities,” Parsons spokeswoman Amber Thompson said via email.

CDOT said Parsons’ plan laid out a phased program of infrastructure improvements on I-70. Work would focus on the area between C-470 and Silverthorne “initially ... extending to Eagle in the future,” CDOT said.

CDOT said Parsons’ proposal “includes an innovative finance opportunity that requires little or no public funding and a construction schedule beginning in mid to late 2014.”

CDOT said the proposal didn’t preclude highway improvements identified in June, when the Federal Highway Administration issued its “record of decision” for environmental studies on I-70. The decision gave federal approval to the study of several projects to improve I-70 between C-470 and Glenwood Springs.

Among those projects is the expansion of I-70 to six lanes from Floyd Hill through the Twin Tunnels near Idaho Springs, according to CDOT.

CDOT said it and the HPTE staff will conduct an initial review of Parsons’ proposal to determine whether it meets “certain criteria,” such as:

• Whether Parsons’ proposed project would benefit the state.

• That the financing plan appears viable.

• What other projects may be planned in the area, and how Parsons’ plan could impact those projects.

• What resources currently exist.

HPTE will decide by mid-September whether Parsons’ plan warrants a more in-depth review that could take another three to four months to complete, CDOT said.

If the proposal passes that test, then HPTE would issue a request for proposals in early 2012 to see if other parties might be interested in fixing I-70’s traffic problems, CDOT said.

No work on I-70 could occur without state and federal approvals, CDOT said.

CDOT received similarly unsolicited proposals about 10 years ago from engineering firms wanting to build toll lanes on I-70, between I-25 and Pena Boulevard, and C-470, between Wadsworth Boulevard and I-25. Neither proposal was ultimately built.